By Michelle Eickmeyer
Discovery is one of the most discussed and sought after experiences among librarians, students and faculty in academic libraries. They may call those experiences different things, but discovery is the thread running through the needs of these groups. Librarians want all materials to be called upon — find-able by any user at the moment of need. Students often encounter the library’s holdings with a vague understanding of either what they are looking for, or how to find it. Or both. Or neither. Faculty look to support the scholarship of their students and, often, their own research needs as well.
For the first time, Gale exclusively is providing students and faculty the research discovery experience they are looking for while enabling the library’s collection discovery to take on a new life. Gale’s new InterLink technology works automatically and seamlessly to provide more contextually significant search results while conducting research.
You may have received an email from us last week discussing the features and benefits of InterLink to your library, or you may have seen the press release. Here is a bit more information, with academic libraries specifically in mind.
How InterLink Works
Using the power of Gale’s robust proprietary subject indexing, InterLink technology exposes connections between search results within current articles from newspapers, magazines and journals from your libraries InfoTrac periodical products, such as Academic OneFile and General OneFile, with contextual reference content found within the library’s eBooks on GVRL. Links are provided on the first instance of a term with a relevant GVRL article available.
In this example, a student using Academic OneFile to conduct research is able to expand her research using an encyclopedia within the library’s GVRL holdings.
What Does That Mean — to the Library
One of the main goals of academic libraries is to provide the best support and information possible to students and faculty, allowing them to advance research and scholarship. Acquiring the best and most useful materials to support them is essential to the library’s success. And so is the ability of those same students and faculty to find the material they are looking for, within the sea of other materials which the library offers.
InterLink technology provides instant, valuable, appropriate and non-disruptive promotion of your GVRL eBook titles to your library users. Links can be ignored should a student or faculty member choose to use only the periodical results from their original search. If they are looking for more information, the relevant GVRL article(s) will open in a new tab, maintaining the integrity of their original search and article retrieval.
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J Boorstin (1914-2004), 12th Librarian of the United States Congress
What Does That Mean — to Researchers
Students and faculty have numerous benefits to their research from InterLink. Key term hyperlinking is a functionality of many web aggregators, including Wikipedia. But unlike every other linking scenario out there, researchers can trust their InterLink results to be smart, appropriate and trusted.
Versus linking to any old article on the same word, the InterLink will provide only results within the same scope of the original search and within the same context of the article they are currently reading. In the animated example above, ‘automation’ was hyperlinked within a search on cyber security. The encyclopedia entry within GVRL is about automation AND cyber security.
Students can trust the source, quality and validity of the titles they uncover using InterLink. Regardless of how they search and how many links they explore, researchers are always navigating the trusted, accredited and quality resources of your library’s holdings.
For more information on InterLink technology and what it can do for your library and researchers, please visit the website, contact your Gale representative, or ask us here.
[alert-info]
About the Author
Michelle is an “anytime!” traveler and language enthusiast. She has degrees in talking from Central Michigan and Michigan State University. She is currently becoming a runner and used to play golf in high school.
[/alert-info]GOLF NIKE SHOES